No tv shows or Netflix for UK ??!!

macrumors member

Comparing the US and UK pages of the tv it looks like we are missing out on a few of the key features of the product.

No tv show rentals is the major issue for me. Hopefully that will be something that will come with time, like the other US broadcasters because otherwise I will not be able to replace my existing setup.

I would be happier if they at least let us rent US tv shows until they sort out UK broadcasters but as there is no mention I doubt that is coming.

macrumors 6502

Agreed. It is depressing, but unsurprising.
I'd buy it to get TV decent shows like lie2me, house, bones etc etc, things shown on keynote (and ideally much more) at the same or near time to UK air times (so still WAY later than US), but with only basically being a film rental device it is rather pointless to me as lovefilm with give me a better selection at a fraction of the cost.

macrumors regular

No tv show rentals is the major issue for me. Hopefully that will be something that will come with time, like the other US broadcasters because otherwise I will not be able to replace my existing setup.

I would be happier if they at least let us rent US tv shows until they sort out UK broadcasters but as there is no mention I doubt that is coming.

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Hopefully TV show rentals will appear in time, I know it took a fair while for them to appear in iTunes.

You'll never be able to directly rent US shows in the UK until broadcast rights and contracts are negotiated. The UK stations pay a lot of money for the rights to show a certain programme/series and only reclaims money by selling ad space in the breaks (hence why some programmes appear on one channel and then switch the following series e.g. Lost going from Five to Sky One).

macrumors 6502

What would be great for Apple TV is if they made a deal with Sky. I have Sky Player on my Xbox 360 and with my parents being Sky subscribers (movies and sports packages) I can watch any movie and all of the sports channels whenever I want.
But so far, for £99...I only really see it useful for streaming my films from my laptop to it.

macrumors 6502a

macrumors regular

I was hoping the UK would get LoveFilm streaming, as they seem to be the UK equivalent of Netflix. Perhaps we will get more as Project Canvas develops.

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I'm signing up to MUBI.com subscription £9.99 a month as many movies as you want to watch or £3 per film for a seven day rental on my PS3 when it launches in October.

It's foreign, classics and art house films so will go over a lot of people's head. Great that it's found a home on Sony's console. Gamers aren't the most culturally aware people usually.

You can sign into that on multiple PS3's too and with the Move controllers out soon might be a good time to pick up a secondary system with them bundled in or for first time customers wanting the daddy of entertainment systems.

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